by: Linda G. Miller
Event: World Monuments Watch: 2008 List of 100 Most Endangered Sites
Organizer: World Monuments Fund
The neglected New York State Pavilion is endangered according to the WMF.
Courtesy World Monuments Fund
This year’s official announcement of the 2008 World Monuments Fund’s (WMF) Watch List begins with cartoonist/environmentalist Walt Kelly’s well-worn quotation — “We have met the enemy and he is us,” underscoring the list’s heightened focus on recognizing man-made threats to the natural and built environment.
The list is the WMF’s call to attention and action for the survival of cultural heritage sites across the globe and is assembled by an international panel of experts in the fields of architecture, archaeology, art history, and preservation, culled from nominations from governments, conservators, site caretakers, NGOs, and individuals. Sites run the gamut and are listed by country and category — global climate change, conflict, economic and development pressures, historic cities, modern architecture, geographical regions of note.
Seven U.S. sites are on the list: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Florida Southern University in Lakeland, FL, due to deterioration and the lack of funds to make repairs; Philip Johnson’s iconic New York State Pavilion built for the 1964 World’s Fair, now a modern ruin; Route 66, the fabled two-lane highway and its deteriorating roadside architecture; Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA, because new construction threatens to ruin the expansive view of the Pacific from the central courtyard; the Tutuveni Petroglyph Site on the Hopi Tribal Land in Arizona, described as the “Rosetta Stone” of Hopi civilization, which has been vandalized; New Orleans, while it struggles to recover its historic sites, faces continued and possibly more severe natural forces; and finally, Main Street, USA, and its body of post-war civic buildings designed in the modern style, now perceived as out-of-date and at risk of being demolished.
On this list, says WMF president Bonnie Burnham, “man is indeed the real enemy, but, just as we caused the damage in the first place, we have the power to repair it.”
Every picture tells a story — and for all of us armchair tourists, there are 100 stories, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, of endangered sites to learn about on the WMF website.